Senegalese striker Demba Ba is best remembered for his time in the Premier League with West Ham United, Newcastle United and Chelsea, but he could have had a very different career path if not for a mistake made by Stoke City back in 2011.
The 2010/11 season was a historic one for Stoke for many reasons, and Ba was set to be at the club playing his part after being identified by the Potters’ scouts in the January window as a player that would fit boss Tony Pulis’ attritional and effacious style of play.
The then-25-year-old had been impressing in Germany with Hoffenheim, and Stoke had agreed a deal worth upwards of £8m with the Bundesliga club midway through the window, ahead of a medical at the club’s training ground, but the plug was soon pulled on the transfer altogether after he failed said medical.
Ba instead returned to Germany, only to get his move to the Premier League later on in the month, as West Ham signed him on a three-year pay-as-you-play deal as they looked to avoid relegation.
The rest is history, as the Senegalese hitman went on to score consistently in the top-flight and European competitions with the Hammers, Newcastle and Chelsea before his four-year spell in English football came to an end in 2014.
He came back to haunt Stoke on more than one occasion after his failed move, and Potters fans were left wondering about what could have been with him leading their attack.
Ba was one that got away from Stoke
Ba was mightily close to being a Stoke player in January 2011, with the move done regarding personal terms, and just the medical left to complete as he closed in on his coveted move to the Premier League with Potters boss Tony Pulis keen to bolster a frontline that consisted of the likes of Jon Walters, Kenwyne Jones and Ricardo Fuller.
Said medical highlighted some issues with his knee though, and so the move did not go ahead despite him being pictured in a club tracksuit at their Clayton Wood training ground, with Pulis declaring that he was “desperately disappointed” to not see the deal go through after being impressed by scouts’ reports.
Ba was still determined to make his move to England, with ties now all but severed with Hoffenheim, and so was sold to West Ham later in the same window as the Irons took a chance on his knee issue by offering him a pay-as-you-play contract, after he had previously been linked to them prior to his Stoke saga.
